Familiar Faces In Section Play

May 5, 1988|By Alan Schmadtke of The Sentinel Staff

TAVARES — To gain a berth among final four softball teams, South Sumter will have to beat a familiar foe. For Clermont's baseball team to do the same, it will have to beat some of the same athletes it faced in last fall's football playoffs.

South Sumter (26-2-1), which beat Clermont for the Class AA, Region 5 title on Tuesday, plays Tampa Catholic for the Section 3 championship at 4 p.m. Friday in Tampa. The Raiders, who earned a spot in the state playoffs in Jacksonville last year, have lost to Tampa Catholic the last two times they have faced them in the playoffs.

In 1985, Tampa Catholic won, 11-6, in Inverness. A year earlier, the Crusaders won at home, 7-6.

Tampa Catholic (16-6) won the Region 6 championship with a 1-0 victory over Lake Placid on Tuesday. But South Sumter defeated Tampa Catholic in a sectional game in 1986.

''They have a good softball tradition over there,'' South Sumter Coach Jim Henderson said. Clermont's baseball team could say the same about Avon Park.

The Highlanders (17-4), who advanced to the Section 3 baseball game for the first time since 1983 with Tuesday's 4-2 victory over South Sumter, play Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Avon Park.

Avon Park beat Sarasota Cardinal Mooney, 5-4.

The Red Devils (23-2), defending state champions, won't exactly be unfamiliar. Last year they eliminated Mount Dora from postseason play. And back in the fall, Avon Park twice beat Clermont in football, the last time, 47-13, in the Region 3 playoff game in Clermont. Many of the same athletes will compete for both schools.